Archive for the ‘Russian Power Phrases’ category

Congratulations! You Made it. I hope you are feeling confident about your ability to communicate and get some things done when visiting Russia or Ukraine. If you have any questions or requests, feel free to leave a comment on the blog or get in touch.

This is a versatile word that you will certainly here every now and then. Seechas can be used to say, just a second, one moment, and even.. now in Russian. Take a look at the video where a few of the different ways to use it are explained.

Do you remember the most useful Russian phrase? It was the very first one that got us started in the series. How would you say.. museum.. on foot.. is is possible? If you don’t recall, as usual.. watch the video!

If you’re reading this, it means you’d like to know how to say ‘water’ in Russian. I wish I could just lie to you and tell you the word is ‘vaDAH’ and be done with it. Unfortunately, nothing in Russian is that simple. ‘VaDAH’ is ONE way you’ll hear it. The other two ways are:

VOHdu and vahDEE.

It just depends on context. If you’re walking along the street and want to point to some water and exclaim, “Water!” then you’d say, “VaDAH!”

If you’re in a restaurant and want to order water, you’d say, “VOHdu.”

Finally, if you want to offer someone some water — emphasis on some — you’d say, “VahDEE.”

This is typical of the Russian language, where the emphasis shifts depending on which form of the word you’re using. And it’s a bit of a nuisance. Imagine if English did that. Imagine if we said, “One baNAna. Two banaNAS.” But don’t sweat it too much. Make your best guess and hope for the best.

Getting back to water: No one seems to drink it straight out of the faucet. If the locals are afraid of it, so am I. This means you end up buying a lot of bottled water. I always make it my first task, after buying a map of the city, to go out and buy some jugs of purified water…